Two articles have popped up in the wake of Cyan's fandom-rattling pitch reel for Anglerfish. To recap from last week: Anglerfish was the Myst-universe project that Cyan started prototyping in 2024. They teased it as "PREFALL" because it was…
August brings us Suspended, Michael Berlyn's cryogenic nightmare. As usual, the source code repository is also live, licensed with the open-source MIT license. Suspended surely had the most inspired package concept of Infocom's early years.…
The rest of my 2026 Mysterium report. (See part 1 for the Cyan news.) All the videos are currently available on Mysterium's Twitch channel. They will be archived on their Youtube channel pretty soon. Documentary Update Philip Shane gave his…
Another Mysterium has arrived and then faded silently away. Or, I suppose, faded away with its characteristic reverb-y "vrrrwww-WONK-wonk-wonk" noise. This year's event was in Portland, Oregon. I did not attend in person; cross-country trav…
I'm embarrassed about this one. The Witness will be September's release for the Visible Zorker project, but it's already done for Patreon supporters. So I've scanned my Witness feelies for the app already. (You can see the high-res scans he…
Here's an interesting bit of game-historic preservation: someone has posted a browser-playable version of Cliff Johnson's epic (and epically-slow-to-release) 2012 puzzle game, The Fool and his Money. Here's the new web site: www.the-fool-an…
What a wonderful time to be a puzzle fiend! The Incident at Galley House Dimhaven: The Lost Source (Updated to add: I played a free review copy of Galley House.) The Incident at Galley House by William Rous and Evil Trout -- game site Galle…
I tried to give this post an eye-catching title like "The Power of Indentation!" But my fingers wouldn't have it. Blame the fingers. I don't know much about the text-editing tools used at Infocom. The Witness source directory includes a tan…
Borneo, 1941: rich white Brits run the show for tobacco, pearls and the opium trade, while World War Two creeps up around the edges. Who is sneaking onto the Goodwill plantation and why? The Red Pearls of Borneo (Bushmonkey Games) is an int…
As promised, the latest from the Visible Zorker project: Visible Starcross! "The challenge was issued eons ago, from light-years away." As usual, the source code repository is also live, licensed with the open-source MIT license. This was a…
I have no hot take, but I did post this last year: Another Valve hardware announcement: the Steam Machine is back. I am immediately and predictably on board for it. So I owe you a followup post, which is, TLDR: "too rich for my blood." 512G…
Last month I saw a reference to the "You Cannot Play This TTRPG Jam": This is a game jam for games that do not exist. They won't ever exist. They will never be playable. They will suggest a game, create a space in which it seems like a game…